Open invitation – Event launch – Carmel Bird’s Family Skeleton

Join Sisters in Crime convenor, Lindy Cameron, as she interrogates Carmel Bird about her latest novel, Family Skeleton (University of WA Press)

Family Skeleton begins with Toorak matriarch, Margaret, widow of Edmund Rice O’Day of O’Day Funerals, secretly surveying her family in the garden. Everyone, including Margaret herself, is oblivious to the O’Day family secrets that a visiting American relative is determined to excavate. So, when it begins to surface, how far will Margaret O’Day go in order to bury the truth and preserve her family’s legacy?

With elegant wit and compassion, Bird delivers a dark comedy of mystery and scandal. Family Skeleton examines the heart of a family that has for generations been engaged in dark business. You can’t dig a grave without disturbing the smooth surface of the soil.

Carmel Bird grew up in Tasmania, where the influence of the land and history of the island is often apparent in her work. She is a prominent fixture in the Australian writing landscape, and has a short story competition named for her.

Bird took a BA before embarking on a twenty-year teaching career in 1961. She is the author of over 30 books, including novels, short story collections, anthologies, writers

guides, and edited publications, and she continues to teach writing. Her works The Bluebird Cafe (1990), The White Garden (1995) and Red Shoes (1998) were shortlisted for the Miles Franklin Award. Info: http://www.carmelbird.com/

6 for 6.30 pm, Monday 19 September, Readings Hawthorn, 701 Glenferrie Road.

Free, but please click here to book.